


Savage: Convergence

by MarrowMeister



Series: Codependence [8]
Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Original Work, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Blood, Fantastic Four Cameos, Major Original Character(s), Marvel Universe, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Original Universe, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:28:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27592745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarrowMeister/pseuds/MarrowMeister
Summary: This is the first entry in the Convergence series; A continuation of the Symbiote Origin series previously established. This story follows Savage and Noah, picking up months after they had first met and bonded together. This is a story driven adventure and really has the start of the main event I will continue to build to.There is a cameo from Seethe and Ben Grimm, last seen in the Seethe: Origin story.Luke Cage has a secondary role in the story towards the second half.I thoroughly hope you enjoy this, and please leave a comment if you have anything you would like to say.Savage belongs to @gamerz4life365 on TwitterYou can find me on @MeisterMarrow on TwitterIf you'd like to know more about any of the characters in this series, see art of the symbiotes, or just see where this whole thing is going don't be afraid to reach out to me.
Relationships: Original Symbiote Character(s) (Marvel)/Original Character(s)
Series: Codependence [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1694629
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Savage: Convergence

Noah picked at his fingers nails, the rather nubby ends had been cut just a little too short for comfort. The tiniest bit of white at the very tips of his left hand’s four fingers held a bit of discoloration beneath. A pool of minor irritation began to form just under his skin but he pushed against it, exhaling with a deep breath in an effort to dispel the negative sensation from such a meaningless discomfort. He brought his left hand’s middle finger to his lips and nibbled lightly; what he had thought was a small collection of dirt from his extensive time outside had actually been dried blood. There was an instantaneous mixed reaction, his brain told him to spit and maybe even gag... but his other half bubbled with excitement. Noah stuck his tongue out in disgust and quickly brought his hands to his hoodie to wipe off, doing his absolute best to fold the fabric beneath the edge of his nails in order to wipe away the substance beneath.

“You know I still hate that shit, no matter how much you want me to enjoy it; that’s _your_ thing and not mine.” Noah mumbled to what would appear to be himself. He continued rubbing the edges of his fingers, switching hands to the more dominant one which peculiarly held less debris. 

A rather unremarkable woman glanced at the scrappy young adult as she briskly walked by; her face betraying her feelings of disgust and distaste for the person she likely deemed ‘some crazy homeless creep’. Noah paid no attention to the woman, completely desensitized to those who looked down on him after by this point. At first it had been hard to let go of the modest amount of vanity and pride of his old life. He had cried himself to sleep the first time he was asked to leave a simple fast food restaurant after he had passed out at the table. An anger had begun to form during the incident but he knew it wasn’t his, and he knew that those employees were simply doing their job. He had left peacefully, not even allowing his other half out in the evening in some sort of unnecessary penance. 

Noah felt his head turn back towards the woman who had triggered the negative memory. 

“Don’t do that. You know the rules-“ Noah mumbled once more with the slightest edge to his voice. 

“My body. My rules.” He grunted as he forced his head back towards the direction he walked.

[ **Our Body.** ] A voice rumbled between his ears; indecipherable whether it was simply a form of telepathy or an actual spoken voice that was simply only audible within his skull. The very tone less of a forceful statement of control, and more a paradoxical rudely polite reminder.

“Only the ones that deserve it-“ Noah began to feel himself argue.

[ **They all deserve it.** ] The voice interrupted with a counter, this time practically vibrating somewhere between excitement and a palpable attempt at subduing a deep urge of violence. The sensation had grown quieter over time, still existing in full force but more controlled, directed even. 

Noah looked upwards to the sky as he walked, raising a hand to the mid afternoon sun. Sometimes if he found just the right street or stood climbed to a high enough building he could see over Central Park and into the New York skyline. He had considered migrating more towards such a dense area but found Harlem to be much more manageable when it came to law enforcement and... begging. He had only been in New York for a few months, but felt significantly more comfortable than he had during his cross country trek. New York just felt more accommodating to those unfortunate enough to find themselves living on the streets. 

His mind drifted briefly to when he very first left his home state of New Mexico, taking the opportunity to hop the state lines into California. The decision had seemed good at the time, even being so fortunate as to run into someone... like him. A completely isolated incident he had not had the fortune of repeating. Noah constantly read any news article he could find regarding bizarre animal attacks or suspected serial killers in either New York State or Northern California; a conflict of interest between wanting to know if his actions were being connected with a disturbing amount of red string on some poor detective’s cork board or if Rebecca had slipped up somehow. 

[ **You miss her.** ] Noah’s other half piped up, somewhere between a question and an accusation. 

The creature shifted its body; it mimicked a polyester and cotton hybrid of some sort and presented as nothing more than a typical black hoodie sweater. Noah slowed his pace from the aimless yet brisk walk more of a shuffle. 

“It was mutual and you know it. Besides, we still have eachother’s phone numbers and email addresses just in case. I’m sure she’s watching for me the same way I am for her, even if she does disagree with _our_ methods.“ Noah recalled the fundamental disagreement of philosophies that had wilted the budding relationship only months after it had begun to form. 

[ **You can’t lie to me.** ] The living clothing interrupted once more, evidently lacking in patience. 

[ **You** _ **miss**_ **her.** ] The voice reiterated once more.

“Fine.” Noah admitted, knowing that this argument would never cease if he chose to continue disagreeing. 

“I do miss her. I mean yeah I’ve mostly moved on and I’m glad we’re friends but it’s like. It’s less that I miss _her_ and more that I miss what it _could have been._ ” There was no verbal response but the second mind had received the answer it wanted. Some things needed to be spelled out to Savage but occasionally the symbiote would catch on. 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Noah had tried to salvage the relationship, a few spats about how Savage had handled a situation here and there. At first he tried to tone himself down, but it was a futile effort. Noah was still unsure which of the two had really spoken that day but the words were practically scarring in their own right. 

“It’s like I don’t know who you are sometimes! You giant dumb fucking BRUTE!” They had screamed, Rebecca and Abyss’s voices overlapping one another. She had insulted him and his other before, and perhaps he should have simply incapacitated the man but there was occasionally this sort of dissociation when he let himself go. He had planted his massive foot on the officer; perhaps a man simply doing his job, terrified at the sight of such inhuman monsters or just someone looking for an excuse to shoot at something. 

The memory itself was clear and Noah knew he would never have been someone to do such a horrible thing before meeting his other but the deepest part of him knew he wouldn’t change his actions. He hated cops. He hated them almost to an irrational level, and the hatred boiled in exaggeration as Savage stoked the emotional fires. His massive foot almost the entire size of the grown man’s torso had pushed any traces of oxygen from the man’s lungs. His face had turned bright red as he passed out from the hypoxia. He could have stopped there; Abyss’s voice beginning as a simple statement before shifting into a plea.

“That’s enough hun, he’s down.” The voice said, completely androgynous with only the slightest hint of femininity below the surface. 

“That’s enough. Stop. STOP.” The pair commanded, her ocean blue webbed hands with deep navy fingers shifting into tendrils akin to some sort of octopus. She had thrown them around Savage’s body as the passed out officer continued to remain without oxygen. Noah had remembered almost laughing at her pathetic attempt; the symbiotic pair more than lethal to any normal human but barely anything more than a gnat to someone of their stature and strength. 

“You want us to stop? Fine.” Savage’s voice answered the pleas almost mockingly. His intensely deep voice carried through the air with enough bass to vibrate the very water within the human body. 

He shifted his weight from simply resting his foot upon the man to digging his heel into the unconscious police officer. Abyss had cried out in momentary shock as she witnessed the one she had just begun to feel love for roll all of his weight forward; the base of his foot pressing hundreds of pounds of pressure up the man’s body, collapsing the entirety of his rib cage with a sound practically incomparable to anything most people have heard before. The sickening crunch was muted by the still intact skin but the bone crunching remained unmistakable. Savage continued the swift motion until the very end of his toes became flush to the man’s body. 

Noah knew the sight of a human head exploding outwards in a bloody sinewy mess like tube of toothpaste was enough to traumatize most people for life. 

“Oops.” He had remembered stating disingenuously, the final nail in the proverbial coffin. 

They avoided eachother for days after that. Noah knew he had fucked up and knew he should have been racked with guilt but the sensation never grew. They tried to remain civil but that experience had answered a question both had hoped never to ask.

Noah finally broke the silence between them.

“I think we... I... should leave.” He offered, not really having a plan but already stumbling over excuses.

“I don’t like mooching off of you and I can’t exactly get a job right now.” The excuse technically a genuinely valid point, since his home state had reported him deceased just after he first bonded with Savage. 

“I’m also worried about bringing too much attention to you out here. I don’t think a federal investigation would be the best thing for either of us. Plus Sav wants to move east to look for others like us.”

[ **I said no such thing.** ] The voice disagreed within Noah’s skull, which he thoroughly ignored. 

“We think that’s a great idea.” Rebecca had said, likely with encouragement from her own Symbiote. 

There was a formal goodbye between the two but it felt hollow. 

Noah had remembered the harsh adjustment after that. Moving across an entire country on foot with no real goal was certainly an experience; but it was especially difficult in the beginning. He had never begged for money, he had never slept under a highway, he had never witnessed the disgust most humans displayed towards those that need the most and have the least. He had buried Savage within himself at first, blaming the alien for everything that had gone wrong in his life. Noah had even considered trying to force Savage out, but that was fleeting. The only thing worse than having his life in pieces, would be if he was alone. 

They had migrated east, walking for miles and miles each day in a feat that would have withered most people into a malnourished husk. Noah didn’t have proof but a part of him could feel the truth, Savage would occasionally drive his body during the harshest of nights; searching for a source of food. At first Noah had simply believed it was some sort of self preservation drive, the symbiote needing to protect the host... to protect itself. Savage would never have admitted it but Noah knew they had grown together. The alien cared for its host. 

He would go to bed hungry and wake up satisfied. The only real confirmation he ever had was a the disturbing moment of coughing up a shirt button. The small black round object was enough to know that someone hadn’t made it home the previous night; it was impossible to know if they had deserved the incident.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Noah felt his hoodie tighten across his chest for only a moment in what he could only assume was some kind of hug or sensation of reassurance. The action had gently lead his mind back to the present but he knew Savage would only grow defensive if Noah asked about the soft squeeze. The pair had a somewhat complicated relationship; neither willing to admit love of any kind for the other. It was surely not romantic, but almost familial in some ways... protective. They had certainly grown into what could be considered partners, several small agreements and arguments each steps forward into a more complete relationship built on respect and understanding. Savage craved a violent outlet, seemingly trying to recapture the enticing experience of their first time really letting loose back in that small jail cell. 

Noah had learned through some rather frustrating experiences that Savage was more than capable of involuntary flexing his various muscles, essentially mimicking a puppeteer with their strings. 

They had come to a loose agreement that Savage would only be allowed to take control without asking in times of immediate danger, not that such a thing ever really happened. Savage’s hulking black form had essentially been a result of Noah letting Savage _out_ to take control. Noah used their time alone with one another to learn how to control their physical form more. The two were bonded on a muscular level yes, but only that far. Savage and Noah were still completely separate entities, each able to control their own faculties; however Noah and Savage had grown close enough to form a rather unique midpoint between his unremarkable human body and the massive inhuman beast. 

Noah looked back into the sky, the sun now roughly three fourths of the way towards the horizon. It disappeared between every few buildings before reappearing on the other side; he had been walking long enough to have ended up all the way in East Harlem, always a peculiar surprise when he realized he had been walking for hours without an ounce of discomfort. Noah was reminded of the unpleasant emptiness in his stomach, having not eaten a proper meal since the day before. Noah watched the repeated architecture of the apartment buildings pass by, each one a minimum of five floors or so. He could feel Savage move beneath his skin, a few fasciculations visible to anyone that knew to look. Savage bubbled with the beginnings of excitement leaving Noah with a sensation reminiscent of anxiety deep within his chest. 

“Fine, we’ll do it tonight because you’ve been good and it’s been a little while.” Noah said to his partner who reacted with a victorious smirk of his host’s mouth. Noah forced the corners of his mouth back to their resting position, knowing the smile wasn’t his doing but certainly agreeing with the sentiment.

He slid his hand into his left pocket, the material of his pants only subtly different than the hoodie but somehow inorganic in comparison. He grasped the wallet that had sat undisturbed all day and pulled it out, the worn black faux leather showing its age. 

“Food first though, I hate going out when you’re hungry.” Noah sensed the emptiness of his stomach instantly cease, as if it had simply been shut off. 

“Keep it up and I’ll take back what I said. I know I’m hungry and we agreed you wouldn’t fuck with my organs like that.” His voice was precise, like a parent threatening to take their child’s candy away.

The empty sensation returned accompanied by a rather loud gurgle, echoing within the hollow organ that cried for sustenance. 

Noah opened the plain wallet, glancing only briefly at the identification card comfortably sitting in a clear plastic sleeve just besides a series of credit cards. 

The name of the man was unimportant, the photo of his clean shaven and young looking face clearly taken before the years of hard drugs that followed. Noah didn’t know if the man had died, or rather been killed. It was likely he was fine and just handcuffed to a hospital bed in some overstuffed understaffed ER. 

Noah pulled the driver’s license from its sleeve and tossed it to the ground as he walked, doing the same with credit cards that very possibly didn’t even belong to the man. He turned the wallet and brought two fingers the top, looking inside with hopes of finding cash. An aged twenty dollar Bill was accompanied by two more singles. Noah excitedly slipped the cash back into the wallet and inhaled deeply, sniffing the air with deep intent.

A whiff of car exhaust slid between his nostrils first, he coughed reflexively but continued sniffing once more. A few miscellaneous scents fluttered by; A self-important business man’s cologne, the mild body odor of an early evening runner, a likely very expensive bottle of wine, and finally exactly what he was looking for. The ever enticing smell of cooking oil, beef grease, and fried potatoes. He couldn’t know for sure but it seemed only a couple of blocks away, not a long run by any means. 

Noah heavily considered changing into his _evening attire_ but knew that asking Savage to change back so soon would probably upset him. His sweater tightened briefly in response, knowing that it’s patience would pay off and that their relationship had some give and take. 

Noah approached the fast food restaurant, he didn’t know for sure what time it was but judging by the dimming of the sky and very small space between the sun and horizon it was likely early evening and just in timed for dinner.

He stood outside for a moment, the parking lot completely empty save for two cars that more than likely belonged to the employees. He ran a dirty hand through his hair; at first glance the early twenties Hispanic man would have appeared to have simply had a rough day and nothing more. It wasn’t until one looked closer that the evidence of his living situation began to grow apparent. His worn and raggedy candy red shoes now nearly burgundy from walking literal thousands of miles, probably close to three thousand and five hundred miles after the occasional state detour. His cargo pants that and once been a bold navy blue now completely faded into a muted grey-blue. His sweater however told a different story, the entirely charcoal black material almost shiny upon initial inspection. Noah had avoided looking in a mirror for months, almost afraid of what he would see and how other saw him. He didn’t consider himself the most prideful individual but he knew it would be a difficult sight. He quickly took a mental estimate of how long exactly he’d been living the way he has. Only three or so months with Abyss, and then maybe eight more since leaving California. 

“Almost our anniversary” Noah joked to himself, giving Savage an ever so slight mental prod to no avail. 

Noah finally decided to step inside, there was no point in waiting; they would either kick him out or let him eat. Noah straightened his back with confidence and reoriented his pants. The restaurant could barely even be classified as such; it was clean and mostly organized but the tables were all empty and every piece of furniture appeared outdated in style by at least a decade. There was nobody at the counter but a voice called out something he didn’t quite catch from behind an assortment of metal appliances. Noah stared at the wide menu above his head and read each item carefully. Twenty-two dollars would barely cover an entrée at most normal restaurants, and prices were certainly higher than most of the Midwest he had wandered through but he still had more than enough to eat comfortably. 

A woman approached the counter from where the voice had originated from. She appeared to be maybe in her late thirties or early forties, but aging well; she did not have any real wrinkling around her eyes or mouth and was maybe mildly overweight at worst. 

“Hi welcome to-“ her artificial customer service voice stumbled for a single moment when she registered Noah.

“-what can I get for you?” She asked politely, awaiting a response patiently as her brain confusedly tried to put together the conflicting messages of the young man’s presentation. She stared him up and down, not in any particularly offensive manner but more specifically as if she had been re-reading a line in a book her brain simply refused to process. The woman absentmindedly readjusted her uniform visor before scratching her scalp just between two of her cornrows. She watched as the young and disheveled man before her readjusted his posture in what was likely an effort to appear more professional, or at least less worn down.

“Can I have a number three combo, two number sixes without pickles, a medium drink, two large fries, and-” Noah rattled off the menu items as he began to salivate. His partnership with Savage had some side effects that would normally be seen as benefits by a stable member of society; but burning through calories at an advanced rate meant he had to ‘eat for two’ which would often lead to financial difficulties.  
”-I guess a number eight combo with cheese if you can…” Noah finished his order, watching excitedly as the woman punched in each of the orders. He could _feel_ Savage’s excitement beneath his skin, the sleeves of his ‘hoodie’ compressing in on themselves almost imperceptibly as the alien forced itself into silence. Noah continued staring until he felt his eyes dry up completely, a completely inconsequential sting reflexively forcing him to blink.

“Your total is twenty-six fifty-two.” the woman stated plainly, apparently over her momentary fascination with the enigma before her.

Noah pulled the wallet from his pocket once more, opening the worn leather up and pulling the currency out. He knew he didn’t have enough to pay for everything he just ordered and immediately felt a momentary sensation of embarrassment and frustration. It was difficult to tell how much of what he was feeling were his own emotions and how much of it was muddled by Savage. The two were still entirely separate entities but had grown more indistinguishable from one another since first bonding. Noah worried what would happen if they were ever pulled apart from one another; the physical damage… and the emotional toll. Noah stood at the counter, still holding the money in his hand almost completely lost within his own mind. He shook his head out of the dissociative fugue before looking back at the minimum wage worker.  
”Uh,-” he nervously looked back to the cash in his hand and back to the woman who had and continued to wait ever so patiently.  
”-I guess, uh, can you take one of those number sixes off…” His voice wavered with a palpable lack of confidence.

The woman looked to Noah, then his hand, and then back to the register. She pressed a few buttons and the total number dropped. The black background of the LED register display now displaying ‘21.32’ in bright green blocking digital numbers. Noah excitedly pushed the money into the woman’s palm who began to count the remaining sixty eight cents the company now owed to its customer.  
”No thank you, I’m good you can keep it” he motioned to the register as the woman casually dropped the coins into a glass jar beside her partially filled with coins and bills. She smiled and retuned to the back of the restaurant establishment.

Noah looked around the store, not a single person other than himself and the employees standing within the confines. He quickly glanced around once more, looking for a restroom. The brown faux wooden door and its dark brown rectangular plastic plaque signaling the bathroom practically glowed with importance. He briskly walked to the door, pulling it carefully as to not distort the metal handle with his modified strength and stepped inside. Almost all of the fluorescent bulbs had been burned out or removed, but the two or so rods that clung to the ceiling were more than enough to light up the small room even if his vision wasn’t enhanced. The room wasn’t exactly the dirtiest place in the world but by no means would he consider it clean. Noah turned and twisted the lock on the door, there was no real reason to but the human part of him still craved safety and privacy. He glanced at the urinal but knew he didn’t really need to pee. He quickly recalled a somewhat unfortunate conversation with Savage in which he had explained that the alien simply decided the need to pee was too inefficient for him and decided that all renal toxins would be ‘constantly excreted through his integumentary system unless a more efficient manner were found’. Of course this lasted all of one day before Noah realized that smelling like pee all day was probably not the best idea and he forced Savage to revert his biological process. It wasn’t until a few weeks later and a handful of awkward interactions in that same sort of vein that they began to come to agreements on biological boundaries between eachother and the concept of consent. Noah sensed what he could only described as a nigh imperceptible snicker emanating from his core. Noah rolled his eyes and approached the sink, its white porcelain likely not free of an innumerable number of germs. He pulled the hard water stained silver sink handle and a pathetic sprinkle of water spouted out. Noah cupped his hands, patiently waiting for a handful of the fluid to fill the space before splashing it into his face.

Noah pushed the handle back down and the water flow stopped. He looked up into the mirror before him, its reflective surface sprinkled with hard water droplet stains. Noah had taught himself to generally avoid mirrors; he would never have considered himself a vain person or someone too caught up in his own appearance but after the first few weeks of homelessness he had learned that there was a special kind of depression that even a symbiote couldn’t stave off and would be brought on by really seeing how far he felt he had fallen. He slowly looked into the mirror, scanning his reflection before forcing himself to refocus out of the vacant haze he felt himself begin to drift into. The man that looked back was still Noah, it wasn’t some dark or twisted or deformed version of himself. He did however take note of the small differences that had begun to show themselves, the changes that were not part of the way he saw himself in his mind’s eye. His once slightly tanned white skin had darkened to more of a milky brown, the constant sun exposure weakening the soft texture it had previously held and replacing it with a mildly rougher aesthetic. Back when he lived with his parents he had shaved his face semi frequently but with no real consistency to the process; months of a total lack of maintenance save for the occasional scissor trim had left his beard unkempt and uneven. He could never grow much of a beard but his chin and jawline was now thoroughly covered with wiry black hairs. A wide patch just below his lower lip awkwardly connected to his chin forming a semi-cohesive chin curtain style beard. The space between his nose and upper lip also held a disorganized mustache, the very center of the bar of hair separated by no more than a centimeter. He ran his fingers through the hair, knocking away some of the water that had clung to it from just moments earlier. His cheeks were sun kissed and a very small number of black hairs protruded in patches but the skin itself still seemed to hold an unnatural health to it that would have been worn away in any other human after so much exposure to the elements; as if his symbiote was in a constant state of combatting the advanced aging process the ultraviolet exposure sought to bestow on the human body. Noah’s nose was not especially big, or wide, or distracting in any way, an aesthetically neutral collection of cartilage with only the faintest hint of dried and irritated skin behind the edge of each nostril. Noah locked eyes with the reflection, focusing on his own irises and noting the rapid expansion and constriction of the pupils. His Irises had been somewhat of an umber brown prior to his bonding with Savage, they still retained the same color overall but upon a focused inspection it appeared as if the slightest hint of red wine had snuck itself between the muscular striations of the organ. He couldn’t help but momentarily focus on the incredibly faint scar just below his right eye. The whole marking was less than an inch long and would likely not be noticed by anyone who didn’t already know it was there but he had been reminded of its existence an uncomfortable number of times by his other. Savage had vocally pointed out how he could not replace scar tissue that had existed prior to their bonding as he simply did not hold a nuanced enough grasp of the limitations of his own biology. He had stated that he felt the scar infuriated him, its existence a constant blemish on the canvas they had begun to form. Noah felt Savage practically vibrate in agreeance with the memory Noah treaded on and his focus on the marking. A simple dirtbike accident from over a decade ago now an ever frustrating trigger for an alien’s obsessive compulsion. Noah moved on; he took note of his thick eyebrows and the fact that he had essentially formed a slight bridge between the two. He rolled his eyes in discontent, the idea of a single black bar of hair above his eyes practically nauseating to his already broken self image. His hairline was by no means receding but it was also not the most impressive. He thankfully had no widow’s peak which he felt occasionally seemed to exaggerate those with weak hairlines. His licorice black hair should have faded from all of the sun exposure but its lively appearance and currant red tips seemed healthier than ever. The deep black and intense reds of his body indicated that Savage’s biology had affected his own on a cosmetically physical level, blurring the already slimming lines between the two even more.

Noah momentarily considered lifting his hoodie, mildly scared of what his body would look like after so many months of poor nutrition and what was functionally an alien parasite eating away at his fat and muscle deposits. He leaned back from the mirror and moved to roll the clothing up. Just as his fingers connected with the edge of the pseudo cotton material, its texture completely shifted into a viscous black goop and retreated upwards. The first time Noah had felt Savage move around on his skin like that it had caused a minor panic, like some sort of glue had been poured on his body and tugged his skin ever so slightly as it moved along. Within seconds he stood shirtless in the poorly lit room, the black fluid nowhere to be seen likely either a minutely thin layer over every inch of his body posing as his skin or completely retreated down to the soft organs below. Noah caught his reflection in the mirror, his poor posture accentuating his exhausted demeanor. He pushed his spine into alignment, standing up straight so that he could just _barely_ be considered six feet tall. At first glance his body could easily be considered physically attracted by most, but he knew that public perception of what was attractive did not align with what was considered healthy. His frame was inherently on the larger side, not built like a football player by any means but most would consider him a ‘big guy’. Noah couldn’t help but crack a smile at the teasing reveal of his abdominal muscles that had formed from the months of Savage eating away at his fatty deposits and the few calories he managed to get his hands on. He knew it wasn’t healthy, he knew that seeing abs simply meant that there was no more fat protection between the muscles and skin, but he also knew that years of what was effectively brainwashing through exposure to media he couldn’t help but see a skinnier body and visible musculature as attractive. His larger frame conflicted with his skinnier body but he was in no way ‘too’ thin, just not as heavy as he probably should have been. His chest was lightly covered in patches of the same wiry black hair of his beard, it had not really grown thicker over time but it was noticeable. Noah stared at the reflection of both of his arms; the appendages visibly indistinguishable at such an unfocused study, but he knew they were not identical. Noah lifted his left arm and looked at the back of his hand, just in front of the wrist and before his fingers. He squinted and took note of a scarring that was not too different than the single marking below his eye. These were different however.

Noah brushed a finger over the skin, his brain told him there should be a change in texture but if there was, he couldn’t feel it. The lines were about an inch and a half long, the skin only mildly lighter than the non scarred tissue. There were four identical lines, each about half an inch apart with a fifth line crossing the bodies of the other four forming a count of five. The scars were self inflicted, and each time another tally was added to his body it hurt. He felt every single one of them and refused to furlough the act for any one of his victims. Noah knew it wasn’t a healthy coping mechanism and he certainly knew it did nothing to make up for the twisted course of action he pursued, but he couldn’t stop. He could only assume savage had taken the vey basis of a belief he had formed through his hunting experience with his father. He was always told to respect life and that any time an animal was killed it should be done with as much respect and purpose as one could manage. At first he had called the man a hypocrite, finding the idea of ‘respectful’ murder to be redundant; but after a handful of hunting trips and watching as his father taught him to carefully skin each animal and how to use almost every part of the creature he had felt he understood. Taking any sort of life was not a game to him, it was not some sort of trophy hunt or misguided effort to prove his masculinity. Unfortunately he had come to figure out that Savage seemingly misunderstood the belief, at least initially. The alien never said it outright but its lack of introspection and only basic scanning of Noah’s memories had lead him to believe that each kill was not so much being ‘honored’ as _counted_. The very first time they had bonded and Savage had taken over, he had essentially locked Noah’s consciousness away and piloted his body like a meatsuit. The officers he had murdered had their lives carved into his skin, the first five starting the cursed trend. It took Noah weeks to understand what the alien was even doing, the faint scars that had slowly been building up his arm only noticeable to those who know what they’re looking for or just one lucky catch of the light. Noah had been furious, the corruption such a concept practically maddening, even if it was all out of ignorance and not malice. After several rather slow conversations and exchanges of memories the symbiote finally came to understand, at least in his own way.

Noah scanned up his arm at the tally blocks; he chose not to count them, partially worried about miscounting and partially worried about sickening himself by thinking of all of the lives his body had been used to end without his consent. Savage was not the most murderous creature in existence. His linear mind easily lost in unidirectional anger occasionally lead to a power dispute between the two but overall they had come to terms with how to function, with who controlled what and what the taking of a life actually meant. Noah couldn’t help but feel an itch, both physically and mentally. He rubbed his skin, the scars equally distributed in groups of five all the way from his left hand till they just began to creep across his left pectoral muscle and the edge of his clavicle. Noah shook his head, realizing he had been scratching rather roughly at his bicep which had begun to redden. He rubbed it with the palm of his hand nervously and within seconds the color returned to normal. Noah felt his stomach gurgle, genuinely unsure if his own body demanded food or if Savage had forced the sensation out. Noah scanned himself one last time in the mirror, watching as the black ooze of his other bubbled to the surface rather quickly and within a few seconds reformed into the same hoodie it had chosen to appear as earlier. He pushed his hands into the front pocket catching the texture just as it changed from its somewhat sticky oily sensation to the mimicry of traditional cotton clothing.

Noah twisted the lock and pushed back through the brown door and back into the body of the restaurant. He had only been a few minutes but he could already smell the food. He glanced over to the counter and saw a dark brown plastic tray with a thin sheet of paper over the whole thing that had been covered in various advertisements for the very products sitting on top of it. The tray was full of sweet sweet proteins and starches along with a tall white empty paper cup. He quickly looked around the restaurant once more, a minor amount of social anxiety telling him that the food may not even be his even though it obviously was. He practically skipped over to the tray, grabbing the paper cup and pivoting to the fountain drink machine beside him. The brown-caramel colored liquid poured out with haste, the carbonation hissing with its exposure to the air. Noah turned to grab the tray, looking for the woman from the register so he could thank her. He heard a couple of noises coming from the back of the kitchen but could not see the employee. He shrugged and took the tray to one of the empty tables in the corner, not trying to hide himself or anything but also not quite interested in sitting dead center in the building.

The food was wrapped individually with reflective foil, also branded like everything else in the establishment. He didn’t have a plan on what he wanted to eat first and quickly began to unwrap the first part of his order. The burger was not small but like all fast food is was not really very filling either. With any fear of choking and a previously suppressed hunger now completely removed from the equation he tore into the meat and managed to swallow the entire processed cow in only a few bites. He grasped the drink with excitement and gulped down mouthful after mouthful of the sweet carbonated beverage, his excitement causing some to spill out from the corners of his mouth and onto his clothing where it was quickly absorbed. Noah went to grasp a second burger and upon unwrapping it he realized it was exactly the same as the first; he froze with his mouth open and the meal in his hand. His vision blurred ever so slightly as a tear formed in the corner of one of his eyes and then rolled down his cheek. He quickly wiped the saltwater streak away and rubbed his eyes, hoping he wouldn’t suddenly start bawling over a simple cheeseburger. He turned back to the counter where the woman who had served him now stood within view, casually wiping down the countertop with an old rag. Noah waved mildly in an effort to catch her attention.  
”Tha-” he coughed on his own words, clearing his throat.  
”Thank you” he smiled as his vision blurred again from tear formation.  
He quickly looked away and rubbed his eyes before looking back just as the woman smiled warmly.

He didn’t know if the woman had simply snuck him the extra order he couldn’t initially pay for or if she simply paid for it herself but either way there was a deep sense of gratitude that he felt would never properly be expressed. Noah continued eating, choosing to savor the gift of saturated fats and polysaccharides. Noah swallowed the last portion of the overcooked and oily meat with pleasure as he quickly plucked a few skinny french-fries from their bright red packaging. The golden sticks of sugar and cholesterol were borderline addictive. Most of them crackling as the outer layer separated upon contact with his teeth. Noah couldn’t know for sure but with next to no doubt he senses Savage was as close to heaven as the creature could get when he wasn’t tearing someone’s head off. Noah continued digging at his food, no more than halfway through it as the entrance to the restaurant opened up. Noah felt his hoodie stiffen, as if the material had suddenly changed from the soft cotton it was before to something more akin to leather. Noah absent mindedly tugged the bottom of his outfit in an attempt to straighten out the suddenly rigid material.

The customer that had opened the door shuffled his feet forward, neither foot lifting and his ragged shoes squeaking. Noah quickly looked up out of mild curiosity, not seeing the front of the man but taking note of his thin weathered black jacket and green camouflage patterned cargo shorts. The man stood at the counter awkwardly, almost twitchy like he was nervous. Noah paused, judging that the man was likely homeless like himself and was simply trying to figure out if he could afford a meal. Noah looked down at his own food, a whole unopened burger still ready to be eaten. He placed the burger to the side of the tray, heavily considering giving the man his uneaten food if for some reason he could not afford his own. The woman who had helped Noah and who Noah now felt was the only employee in the whole store approached the counter and started up with her artificially practiced service industry voice. It was clear she was used to ‘societal undesirables’ frequently coming inside and either trying to use their bathroom for drugs or begging other patrons for money. She stood ready to input the man’s order or shoo him away with the threat of a phone-call to the police if need be. The man continued standing in front of the counter, having not spoken but clearly mulling something over. Noah picked at the last few of his fries as he watched the man with the slightest amount of pity.

“Sir?” the woman asked with a polite nudge.  
”Sir I’m going to need you to order or-”

“Or What.” the man suddenly spoke up, his faux aggression clearly translucent and revealing the fear and anxiety beneath. The woman’s body language changed and Noah felt himself cease chewing and his body tense up. The standoff continued only for a moment longer as the employee practically oozed with newly revealed irritability.  
”Just. Just uh, give-” the man sputtered out, moving his right hand to his back and below the jacket he wore. He pulled an object that had been resting hidden in the waistline of his shorts and pointed it at the woman. The somewhat powerful body language the woman had just moments before evaporated in less than a second as she yelped, suddenly realizing the gravity of her situation. Noah couldn’t see everything that was happening with the man’s own body blocking his view, but he instantly understood what was happening.  
”Give me the fucking money in the register lady, just. Just fucking put it in a bag and give me the fucking money.” He twitched, visibly sweating from stress within the air conditioned restaurant. Noah silently dropped the food he had been holding back on to the tray and slid out from his seat without a sound. He ducked behind a small barrier separating some tables in an effort to obscure the line of sight between the man robbing the store and himself. Noah knew that the man had not quite taken notice that he was not alone but the woman with her hands up locked eyes with Noah just as he was about to slink into relative safety and she subtly shook her head. Noah understood that to her, it was not worth putting someone in danger for a couple of hundred dollars from a cash register owned by a multibillion dollar company. The register dinged loudly as she opened it for the twitchy man who’s lack of trigger discipline was causing Noah the most concern.

Now fully out of sight, he and Savage mentally communed; neither needing to actually say anything but both fully understanding what was going to happen next. Although Savage’s true form when embraced by Noah was a massive and hulking brute, they had essentially come to an understanding that there needed to sometimes be a middle ground; some way for Noah to maintain control with Savage’s anatomy protecting his own vulnerable body below. The hoodie he wore instantly began to shift, the loose sleeves and casual aesthetic quickly extending outward and covering every inch of his body. The living alien tissue continued proliferating until it moved over his pants and slipping beneath his shoes and over his socks. The material continued upwards, his hands now completely covered as if he had put on a pair of glove’s whos seams imperceptibly melded with the edges of a long sleeved shirt. Savage crawled up Noah’s neck and across his face, the entire body of the young man now an opaque black void of detail. Noah could feel the entirety of his other covering almost every inch of his upper body and pressing his pants and socks against his skin. For only a moment longer the Noah remained blind to the world beneath his other’s newly formed outer layer. He blinked hard as two crimson lenses formed over where his eyes were below, functionally serving simultaneously as a second pair of eyes and the equivalent of lenses that enhanced his own natural vision. He remained crouched and hidden as he completed the last few seconds of his transformation, the whole change spanning less than ten to fifteen seconds max. Noah shifted his neck left and right with a quiet yet satisfying _crack_. He looked to his left arm where the previously difficult to discern tally marks slipped to the surface of his second skin, now the same bright red as his eye lenses; Noah ran his right hand over the entire arm, skimming the surface of the organic suit and watching as the organized lines separated and shifted across the outfit until ringed bands formed around the arm and his fingers. All five fingers now each displayed a series of red rings separated by small gaps of the black below before reaching and encircling his wrist. The posterior portion of both hands in the space between his fingers and wrist both proudly displaying a triangular red patch of their own with a thin red line that visually disappeared to the posterior of his body. The crimson rings continued up the entirety of his arm until they encircled just north of his bicep and a two new thicker red lines formed on his torso. A vertical line cleanly dividing his torso into a left and right half that began at the very tip of his manubrium and continued down until it met perpendicularly with the other line that perfectly circled his waist just above his pelvis. He quickly glanced to the rest of his entirely black body, the only red on display succinctly confined to his left arm, eye lenses, and two dividing lines on his torso; Noah knew that one day there would unfortunately be a significantly larger amount of the rings.

“Hurry the fuck uP ladY!” The man robbing the store spat out, clearly not a hardened criminal like some of the people Savage and Noah had encountered in the past. Noah felt his heart beat excitedly, the sense of power and invulnerability had a very specific manner of hyping him up in ways he had only ever imagined some drugs would do for normal people. He stood straight up, no longer hiding himself. His physicality visibly enhanced now that he was essentially borrowing mass from his other; Noah was now probably standing somewhere closer to six foot four or five, and his musculature matched that of some body building athletes. Every inch of his skin that Savage touched was not just simply covered, they were connected on a sensory level. Anything Noah touched or felt would be received by Savage and then his own nerves would be electrically stimulated to recreate those sensations.

The woman digging through the register continued, as the inexperienced gunman waved his weapon. The woman began to cry, sobbing even as she threw the bills into a brown paper bag clearly labeled with the restaurant’s brand. Neither of them noticed the massive threat now confidently approaching the interaction. Noah considered saying something witty or clever, something a superhero would say, something tacky even but his brain drew a blank Savage was by no means clever enough to think on his feet like that.

With an epiphany Noah smirked below the featureless ‘mask’ of his face.  
”Would you like your order to-go sir?” Noah spoke with exaggerated bravado. The voice that came out from the mask was neither his own nor Savage’s but somewhere in between. The bass projected was powerful enough to be _felt_ by whomever it was directed at. The deep and powerful sound was smug as they spoke, only the slightest hint of an unhinged anger below the surface that only needed to be provoked.

The woman at the register screamed in surprise at the terrifying sight; the masked man and ‘his’ voice abnormal enough to startle even the bravest of humans upon first interaction. The man with the gun whipped around without hesitation, unsure of what had just spoken to him but immediately choosing _fight_ over _flight_. The woman behind the counter ducked with haste in an effort to give herself some protection, she put her hands over her head as she practically began rocking herself in fear. Noah finally saw the man face to face. His hair was a disheveled bleach blond only long enough to fray out wildly in every direction as if it had been provoked by static electricity. The blonde hair gave way to a much dirtier blonde which was likely his natural hair color but only along the sides of his head just above and beside his ears. His hairline had receded almost halfway across his scalp, only encouraging the bizarreness of the man’s hair. He didn’t appear to be much older than his late forties or early fifties, which some clear aging from his time and exposure to the elements. His unkempt facial hair was just beyond stubble but overall appeared to at least have an attempt of caring behind it. He wore a yellow-orange shirt with a dirty white crew neck. His hand twitched as the gun in his hand shook, partially due to the weight and partially do to the fear of seeing the menace before him. Noah was not particularly an expert of firearms, nor did he care to inspect the man’s weapon. The handgun looked similar to an M9 or something of the sort but it didn’t matter.  
”What THE FUCK are YOU SuPPOsED to BE?” the man screamed out shakily as he finally decided to squeeze the trigger. The gunshot was paired with a yelp from the cowering woman behind the counter and then two, three, four shots in total. Each bullet closed the distance between the gun and directly into Noah and Savage’s core. Four audible ‘ping’s happily surprised Noah; he had been shot multiple times at this point but every single time it happened he always felt momentary surprise, and then relief. Every single time Noah had chosen to pursue his vigilante fantasy and had actually managed to encounter someone committing any sort of crime he had encountered the same issue; Human beings can be so brittle, the issue he had was not stopping _them_ , but stopping _himself_ from accidentally killing or maiming someone. The man with the gun trembled as he witnessed what, to him, was essentially a six and a half foot tall bulletproof monster. Noah reached out and placed his right hand on the man’s shoulder, pressing his thumb ever so carefully against the man’s clavicle and with the slightest amount of pressure… _Crack_.

The man screamed and dropped the gun to the floor, and attempted to cradle and clutch his broken collar bone. Noah considered breaking an additional rib or two, maybe a leg. He sighed at the banality of it all; It wasn’t like in the movies for him, there was no epic fight or anything. There was no real way to even knock somebody out for an extended period of time without causing serious neurological damage. Noah had learned it was more effective to simply subdue people with as little damage as possible.

The man continued to scream and even began to cry and beg for his life, Noah ignored it all and simply scanned the room for something he could use to ensure the man wouldn’t attempt to leave before law enforcement arrived. He grabbed the nearest chair, its metal frame more than suitable for the deed. Noah looked the man up and down and then lightly swung his foot forward with no more force than the way someone would kick a shoe out of their way, and right into the man’s shin. The bone snapped audibly but thankfully did not break the skin. The man collapsed to the floor and continued screaming in radical amounts of pain. Noah ripped the metal chair in half casually and bent the metal bars of its frames into four ‘U’ shapes. The man writhed on the floor as Noah bent over, carefully grabbing one of the man’s wrists ensuring he did not break it as he laid it out flat and jammed the metal ‘U’ into the restaurant floor and through the ground forming a makeshift shackle of some sort. Noah continued doing so with three more ‘U’s and tossed the remnants of the chair aside with a clatter. The man’s screams had begun to irritate Noah, and out of fear that Savage might try and take control Noah quickly balled up the nearby old rag the woman had been cleaning the counter with and shoved it into his mouth.

“Dinner is served.” Noah said quietly to himself.  
”You can come out now-” he tapped the counter lightly and leaned over to glance at the woman.  
”You uh, you good?” he asked softly, the sheer strength of their voice forcing another surprised yelp from the woman.

She did not answer and Noah sighed once more, not interested in explaining himself or really any of what had just happened. He crouched down to the muffled prisoner below and reached into his pockets. Noah excitedly found what he was looking for, and a bonus. The man’s cellphone was an older model flip phone, Noah easily opened it and dialed ‘911’, the line rang for a few moments and a voice answered on the other end.  
”Hello, my name is-” Noah leaned his head to the side, pinning the phone between where his ear was below the second skin and his shoulder; He opened the man’s wallet and glanced at the driver’s license.  
”Dennis Carradine… and I just committed an armed robbery, come get me.” Noah placed the phone onto the pinned man’s chest, leaving it completely open while the voice on the other end called out.  
Noah skimmed the contents of the man’s wallet for anything useful. He pulled a little over ten dollars and change out of the back of the rather generic billfold and tossed the rest of its contents to the floor. Noah pushed the cash against where his pockets were supposed to be in his pants below, the second skin he wore giving way for his hands to place the money within.  
”Oh, I almost forgot.” Noah picked up the gun the man had attempted to rob the store with and pointed the barrel into his palm. He squeezed the trigger over and over until each bullet had flattened against his skin and he dropped them to the floor with the ones that had been used against him earlier. He crumpled the gun into a deformed ball with his other hand, also dropping it to the floor.  
Noah leaned over the countertop once more at the cowering woman who had likely had enough trauma for one lifetime by now.  
”Thanks for the extra burger.” he smiled imperceptibly beneath the ‘mask’ and walked outside the same way he had come in.

The parking lot was still completely empty just as it was when he arrived; it was still not _quite_ after sundown, the pink sky above threatening to give way to the blacks and blues of the night any minute now. Noah looked upwards and then towards downtown where he could just see the photogenic skyline of the city. He felt Savage tense once more, but this time it was different; the distant run of police sirens echoed as they likely rushed towards his very location. He quickly walked through the parking lot and ducked into an alleyway just across the street. The lack of light was no issue for him now that he was using his other’s eyes and he quickly turned to the side of one of the buildings he stood between. Noah pushed his palm flat against the wall and then flexed and tensed his fingertips. He had practiced with Savage, who had initially suggested simply digging his fingers into the brick; but Noah preferred more grace than that… at least occasionally. He pulled himself upwards, shifting his weight around and pulling one arm at a time while pushing up one leg at a time. He scaled the wall slowly at first, clinging without effort as his other used his incredibly flexible biological abilities to effectively allow him to crawl on walls or stick to a ceiling. Noah pulled himself to the top of the building, it was by no means a skyscraper but it was more than enough to kill a normal human if they were to fall over the edge. He scanned the horizon and looked down into the street as two squad cars approached the restaurant just across the street he had just left.

Noah stared into the distance, towards the downtown rows of incredibly tall buildings that had amazed him when he first arrived. The air shifted for a moment, the breeze moving against his face like normal before inexplicably changing to the complete opposite direction and now moving towards the center of the metropolis. Noah was not a meteorologist but he did know that what he just felt should not have been possible. He felt a pit in his stomach, one of worry and confusion that was accompanied in an almost even more worrying manner by Savage silently experiencing the very same concern. The air current pushed even harder, as if it was being vacuumed inward towards some sort of source. The concerning sensation grew even more with the realization of just quite how powerful something would have to be to cause that. He squinted towards the tallest building he could find and listened intently; there were no screams, no cries or anything that signaled danger. The air stopped moving.

The entire horizon exploded in light; the entirety of downtown suddenly engulfed in a rapidly growing ball of opaque white light. The shockwave hit first, whatever it was it had disturbed the very space it inhabited with enough force to force a massive bubble of pure barometric pressure outwards from the source. Noah felt Savage clench defensively against his own body just as the massive push hit them both. Noah fell onto his backside and his ears rang in confusion. He felt panic, unsure if whatever had just happened could have harmed his other, but was thankful upon scanning his own body and seeing the black layering remained intact. He quickly stood up in a panic and stared towards the dome of light; it appeared to be growing at an incredibly rapid pace but it was too bright to look at directly. Noah felt Savage tense once more in preparation for whatever could come next; neither exchanging words with the other but both letting their thoughts and emotions flow freely back and forth… they both felt fear.

The dome grew, whistling through space as it moved closer and closer and closer and-  
Noah threw his arms up against his face defensively, hoping to brace for impact.

The light passed through both of them with seemingly no harm at all; they quickly turned around and looked up, seeing the light continue outwards and onwards. Noah looked down at himself and the second skin that covered his body. He quickly pressed his hands to his chest, then face, then ran his palms down both arms in a mild panic.  
”What. WHaT the FucK was- What the fuck was that?” Noah sputtered out in confusion and concern, looking back towards the dome of light that had already raced out far from where he had been standing. He quickly turned to look back towards where the anomaly had originated, just five or so miles south of his location. Noah’s mind had already begun to formulate a plan of action… or more accurately the simple concept of moving himself towards the major downtown area of the city. Noah looked down at himself one more time out of a semi-reasonable fear of finding a new arm or that his legs were suddenly in another part of the planet in some bizarre side effect from whatever had just buzzed through him and Savage.  
”Just gotta zoom through the Upper East Side, and then check out midtown.” Noah mumbled, partially as reassurance for himself and partially to verbally inform Savage - if he was even listening.

Noah tensed his calves and quad muscles before then cracking his neck from side to side just as he had earlier. He hopped up and down no more than two or three times in an attempt to hype himself up.  
”Gotta find out what happened, gotta find out what’s happening” He glared towards the once iconic series of architecturally impressive buildings that were now mildly obscured by clouds of smoke. Something didn’t look quite right, as if the number of buildings had changed; it was difficult to tell for sure at such a distance, even with the enhanced eyesight his other granted him, but it was as if someone had simply taken an eraser to portions of some buildings and removed them entirely while also adding a handful of unfamiliar structures in scattered places.  
”Doesn’t matter.” he told himself, Savage’s makeshift vigilante jumpsuit suddenly tightening against Noah’s body in what was likely a response to the anxiety and determination his host had pushed into the psychically impressionable creature’s mind. Noah’s eyes focused on the nearest building adjacent to the one he stood upon just to his south. The two buildings were only separated by the width of one street, but that would be an infinitely impossible distance to clear for any normal human. He couldn’t tell for sure but it appeared to be the same height if not only one floor higher. Noah tensed his legs, partially crouching forward and mentally nudging Savage into understanding his current mindset so there would be no miscommunication. This was a real emergency, no longer time for the little earth boy to play dressup; he needed his other to understand they were a partnership and needed to work together. Noah began to run, the movements of his body entirely his own yet completely enhanced by a secondary outer layer of inhuman musculature. Just as he reached the edge of the building he squatted, sliding a foot or so from the sheer momentum and launched himself into the air. Noah had never even attempted to do anything of the sort with the sort of half-commitment that was his vigilante suit; any time he had performed any form of real distance traversal it had been when his mind was essentially placed in the passenger seat and Savage had taken over completely.

Noah soared through the air, his stomach practically renting an apartment in his throat as his arc began to bend downwards and gravity asserted its universal dominance. Noah landed exactly where he had wanted to, creating two noticeable spiderwebs on the rooftop from the sheer force of his body. There was an immediate sensation of victory, and also an urge to celebrate but the distant sirens, screams of confusion, and car horns rattling off in such chaotic fashion pulled him back to reality. Noah forced himself into a sprint once more, not even attempting to scope out the next building yet. He threw himself into the air once more, this time moving with noticeably more forward speed and less height, essentially choosing more of a long jump than a high jump. Noah knew that due to the density of apartments and general buildings in almost every part of New York there was no real need to plan his route too much, plus he knew that if he landed on the ground it wouldn’t matter too much and he could just continue on his way. He landed on the next building a tad bit smoother than before, possibly due to luck, possibly due to a silent aid from Savage, or partially do to a noticeable improvement on his own part. Noah continued traversing the city, crossing through Harlem and into the slightly taller buildings of the Upper East Side. Noah knew he should be having the time of his life, screaming in joy and excitement if not alone for the fact that as far as he knew there was not a single other living human who could experience the same sensation he was right then. Noah launched himself upwards once more, taking note of the rapidly upcoming visible divide between the Upper East Side and Eastern Midtown.

“ **I can do it.** ” The incredibly powerful voice of Noah’s other finally spoke up, recognizing Noah’s apparent lack of confidence regarding the frightening possibility of smacking face first into the side of a glass and steel skyscraper.

Noah felt the second mind within his skull begin to push his own aside, his thoughts growing hazy in the same way it felt just as the sweet wave of unconsciousness began to bring the human brain into dreamland.  
”No.” Noah asserted, not out of aggression but out of confidence and a growing belief in himself. Savage easily could have ignored the statement and forced his host into the passenger seat of his own body but seemingly out of a respect that had slowly been growing since their first meeting he allowed the human to continue.  
”How much mass can you create?” Noah asked quickly as he cleared another block.

“ **Enough.** ” Savage stated, understanding exactly what his host was asking due to the casual drift of thoughts between one another.  
” **But not for long. I will use the food we consumed earlier but after that I will need to draw from you directly.** ” Savage immediately shifted his biological focus into re-processing and repurposing the calories they had eaten just minutes prior in hopes he would not need to draw from the already dwindling fatty deposits his host had forced him to use for sustenance over the previous few months.

“Well, here we go!” Noah yelled in excitement as he forced himself to ignore the muscle strain beginning to form in his calves and ankles due to Savage’s need to focus his attention on his plan and his body’s return to reliance on his own skeletal muscle rather than the secondary pseudo muscle enhancement of his other. Noah threw himself into the air, clearing the almost comically visible line between the Upper East Side and Eastern Midtown. He soared towards the first real skyscraper he had ever even attempted to scale. He had angled his leap in such a manner that he would be just parallel to the building’s face which would allow him to either succeed gloriously or fall a couple hundred feet to the unforgiving pavement below. Noah threw his right arm upwards just as he began to plant his feet on the side of the building. Noah couldn’t tell for sure if the process made a sound due to the speed at which he was moving and the wind rushing by his head; a jet black rope with various disorganized streaks of red flew from the triangular red patch on the posterior portion of his hand and rocketed through the air before smacking against the flat surface wetly. Noah wanted to close his eyes but knew he had to focus, finally connecting his feet to the side of the building his ‘rope’ had attached to. He ran, one foot in front of the other sticking aggressively to the window panes but peeling away without effort as the pendulum arced his running path upwards. Without words, just as he reached the end of the width of the building Noah pulled his arm away and the black and red cord detached. Jumping from a practically perpendicular position on the side of a New York high rise was something he never could have dreamed of doing in even the most controlled of environments; Noah flew across the city street over a hundred feet in the air, crossing from the building on the right he had been attached to just moments before towards another just across the aisle.

Noah put no real thought into just how exactly he was doing exactly what he was doing. The jet black and crimson red tether launching sporadically from his hands and carrying his full weight in some sort of bizarre swinging apparatus leaving long reminders of where the vigilante had been. There were no crowds below to cheer him on, no fingers pointing at what had previously only been seen in comic books and movies; only the screams of an unnatural disaster and the chaos of hundreds if not thousands of possibly injured citizens. Savage manipulated Noah’s biology at radical speeds. Every building he cleared meant another rope made of the only thing Savage knew how to make from his own biology. Noah threw his hand out once more, rounding a corner and swinging with intense force towards the southern portion of Midtown and finally beginning to see the true effects of whatever the light had been.

Savage folded together inch upon inch of tarry black striated muscular tissue and coiled it together with the flexible and forgiving blood red arterial tubing, creating what was essentially a webbing of Klyntarian progenitor cells formed into a mimicry of human biology. Noah leapt from the next cable, not hearing it out loud but _sensing_ he could not keep it up much longer. It didn’t matter however, he had finally arrived at the core of the chaos. To use the word chaotic would be an understatement; the bizarre image his mind had concocted earlier that some buildings had simply been removed or transmogrified entirely was disturbingly accurate. Noah clung to the side of a massive skyscraper that simply dwarfed the seemingly tiny buildings he had leapt from less than an hour prior. His fingers sat tensed against the building as he looked down, knowing that he needed to get down to street level and at least attempt to help anyone in need. Without needing to communicate with his other, he began to slide down the side of the structure, as if the stickiness of his hands had lessened significantly. Within seconds he dropped to the ground, this time with enough grace not to crack the pavement. He could hear the sirens of hundreds of emergency vehicles zoom by in every direction and scanned his immediate surroundings. His eyes widened below the red lenses of his outer skin. Just at the end of the street peaking out from behind another building on the corner intersection seemed to be what could only be described as the midsection of a colossal skyscraper. There was a bizarrely clean line that cut off just past a gargantuan LED letter ‘O’; as if some sort of force had cut the top of the building off and dropped the rest of it to the ground… except even with all the chaos going on Noah knew he would have heard if a building collapsed. That amount of concrete and steel cant simply be placed on the ground without one hell of an explosion. He sprinted forward, rounding the corner out of curiosity and a need to see the rest of the structure. Noah practically yelped in surprise and confusion. What was likely about ten whole floors of a massive office building appeared to have been somehow teleported to the middle of a Manhattan street. He squinted at the LED letters, trying to read out what they were supposed to spell, clearly struggling due to their size which was obviously only meant to be read from a distance. ‘OSCO’ the four letters glowed with a bright purple. Noah had no clue what was happening and sadly took note of a few dozen cars that appeared to have been crushed beneath the monstrosity’s weight. He didn’t even want to think about how many had died, let alone if this building was the only one that had been dropped into the city.

Noah sprinted to the end of the street, past the ever confusing midsection of what he mentally noted as the ‘OSCO’ building. Noah knew he desperately wanted to help but also knew that every human he passed simply sprinted away in fear of whatever event had just occurred, none so much as even giving his bizarre sight a second glance. Noah pushed by a middle aged man in a disheveled suit and squeezed by a man in a cell phone brand uniform until he rounded another corner and saw an infinitely more concerning sight than the one he had just encountered.  
”Oh my god.” He coughed out into the dusty air.

An entire skyscraper high rise sat before them, melded into two buildings on either side of the street. It impeccable futuristic glass body seamlessly intersected by the more traditional Manhattan style architecture of an undefinable office building. The two sat partially inside one another like some sort of cosmically twisted video game glitch. Noah stared upwards at the structure, which unlike the ‘OSCO’ building had seemingly remained fully intact. He couldn’t tell for sure but a floor towards the very top of the building had seemingly had its glass pane windows blown outwards, possibly from sort of explosion. Just above that, similar to the ‘OSCO’ building was a colossal light blue LED number ‘4’. The number had a massive circle around it but for some reason that did not appear to be glowing. Noah had no way of knowing for sure but did know that the existence of such a building at what appeared to be the epicenter of the event and the fact that, although partially melded into another building, it appeared to be fully intact seemed suspicious enough to warrant investigation. He forced himself to stop staring, snapping out of the stupor unlike the rest of the human crowd who either gazed off in varying directions or appeared to be mid breakdown. Noah sprinted forward and through the front door of the visually confusing edifice. The lobby appeared somewhat clean, with two elevators against the wall and almost a third of the right side of the room engulfed by the edge of the building that had melded within this one. Two entirely different objects existing in the very same portion of space and time somehow phased into one another. As some sort of cosmic event had moved the objects together. The lights of the lobby flickered and the second elevator to the right at the end of the lobby opened and closed slowly, possibly jammed by something in the sensor or just glitching in confusion.

“Hello?’ Noah called out, his incredibly human voice conflicting with his imposing stature and peak human physical body. He cleared his throat aggressively.  
”Hello!” His voice corrected itself, now the intermixed tone of raw power Savage exuded and the soft humanity Noah poured in. The sound bounced off the geometrically confused walls and the lights flickered once more in response. Noah stepped forward, approaching the opening and closing elevator which appeared to be smaller than the other; possibly one for passengers and the other for cargo. Noah pushed his fingers between the door and spread it open, locking each half of the elevator doors into position.

“Now, I know the nice people that live here; and I also know you ain’t one of em” A peculiar voice echoed from the same entrance Noah had stepped through a few moments ago.  
”I ain’t seen you before but you most of the time when I see a big scary masked guy wearing black and sneaking into a building he ain’t supposed to be in, I know he’s gonna have a bad time.” The voice had a sense of strength to it, absolutely bubbling with bass and confidence that most men would cower at the very thought of.

Noah glanced over his shoulder in curiosity; he had no idea who could possibly claim to know the residents of a building that didn’t exist in this city until less than an hour ago. The man was tall, above average height for sure and possibly taller than Noah, even in his current form. At an imposing six foot six the man towered over most humans. His clothing almost made Noah burst out in laughter, the anachronistic outfit completely bizarre in appearance and would have been weird even in its own time period of the mid to late nineteen seventies. The man’s hair teased the beginnings of an afro, his forehead comfortably adorned with a reflective silver tiara of some sort. The man’s shirt was a bright yellow with a mildly comical partially popped collar. The shirt did not appear to have any buttons and sat wide open in a deep ‘V’ that went from his waistline all the way up to his neck. The loose cloth of the shirt sat secured on each arm by a metallic cuff that engulfed both wrists entirely. The thick metal visually reminiscent of shackles. The man did not wear a traditional belt, but rather an entire chain link wrapped tightly just above his pelvis, possibly to be used as a weapon but Noah had no way of knowing. His pants appeared to be traditional denim jeans with nothing special about them, but rather than lead into sneakers or regular boots; his shoes were the same yellow as his shirt, bright obnoxious yellow faux leather cuffed boots that looked as if some sort of theater stage pirate would wear.

Noah stifled his laughter and raised an eyebrow beneath his second skin. Even Savage shifted in what Noah could only assume was confusion or curiosity.  
”Oh yeah? And who are you.” Noah almost mocked the man, more than prepared to break a few bones.

“Tremble before the power of Power Man!!” He shouted with a fist in the air, the sight forcing a snort out of Noah equivalent to minor laughter.  
”That sounded weird. Luke Cage. Tremble before Luke Cage.” The man said with an ever so slightly less amount of confidence and power, only a little defeated at his own statement.

Noah shrugged and turned towards the man fully, shuffling forward a few steps a time.  
”Look man, I don’t really care who you are and to be honest you look fucking ridiculous… goddamned nerdy ass seventies lookin dumbass.” Noah spouted off the statement with the slightest bit of irritation at the fool.

“I don’t take kindly to being insulted by some Spider-Man wannabe. You’re comin with me till I figure this whole situation out” Luke shot back, stepping forward and closing the distance between the two. Luke stood maybe an inch over Noah, placing a hand on his shoulder with a tight grip.

Noah could sense the strength in the man’s hand, it was clear he was not exuding his full force but he certainly was not normal. Noah flicked his arm up, knocking the man’s grip away and pressing his own palm flat against Luke’s chest with a push. Luke stumbled back, mildly surprised at the development but now realizing that whoever this man was, he too was not just a normal man in a suit.

“Fine. You wanna play that way, let’s dance tiny.” Luke’s almost comically exaggerated voice matching that of someone straight out of a seventies film. Luke cracked his neck in a manner identical to how Noah had done earlier and without any hesitation threw his momentum forward into a sprint.

Noah had never been in a real fight before, and certainly not with someone strong like him. He tensed his body and planted his feet; even with Luke’s enhanced strength he plowed into Noah, driving a fist downward into his his chest but couldn’t move him an inch. The tiled floor of the building splintered from the force and Noah shook out a grunt.  
”Oh, finally someone to play with.” Noah smirked beneath his mask and brought his fist upwards in an arc and right into Luke’s gut.

The man coughed out loudly, the wind having been knocked out of him. Both men clearly wanted to insult the other but decided against it, preferring to focus on one another now that they realized the neither would go down so easily. Noah dropped a shoulder and mimicked Luke’s earlier charge. Luke, in response, planted his feat in a wide stance and braced to catch the barreling man. Both collided loudly but unlike before Luke slid back as Noah continued forward and right into the wall of the building that had intersected the one they stood in. The concrete wall cracked from the force and sprayed dust into the air. Luke did not appear to be hurt but he did sense that his opponent may not be as weak as he had initially believed.

“ _ **Oh no no no, this simply won’t do**_ ” A voice floated through the air. The very words physically manifested themselves as some sort of bizarre floating text to be seen by the world. Both men’s eyes widened in confusion and surprise but knowing that neither had spoken and some sort of third party was either watching the event or entering the fray. Noah stumbled back as the words danced through the air and passed through Luke’s chest and out the other end. Luke stumbled as the text floated through him, visibly shivering and gasping a single time as his heart skipped a beat. Noah had never heard the voice before but some part of his core knew that there was something wrong with it, something unnatural or even sinister.  
” _ **This must be fixed**_ ” The voiced spoke once more as the text manifested itself before Noah’s eyes, floating through the air and passing through Luke again.

“Sweet Christmas!” Luke exclaimed as he felt his heart skip another beat. It was if the words themselves caused his heart to stop pumping, but only for a moment. His unbreakable skin meant nothing to something that would phase through it. Luke felt himself start sweating; a cold and unnatural sweat. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came through. He reached out towards the man he had seen as a threat of some kind a few seconds ago but was now what he believed to be his only chance at being saved. Luke coughed as he felt his heart slow, the incredibly powerful and determined muscle slowing to a crawl before stopping entirely. Luke froze with his hand outstretched, as if the very space he stood in had been pulled from existence for no longer than one miniscule unit of time.

Noah couldn’t help but watch in fear and curiosity. Savage remained silent but physically tense and protective around his host. Noah stared as Luke’s frozen body blinked away as if it had simply been erased from existence. Noah had no idea what had just happened, blinking hard a few times before feeling a momentary lightheadedness. He looked down and almost yelped in confusion; he had somehow been moved back to the elevator doors he stood at just before the man named Luke Cage walked in. Noah forced the elevator doors open once more, locking them into place and pausing, the intense sensation of Deja Vu drifting into reality as a familiar voice called out.

“Now, I know the nice people that live here; and I also know you ain’t one of em” Luke’s voice echoed from the same entrance as the first time.  
”I ain’t seen you before but you most of the time when I see a big scary masked guy wearing black and sneaking into a building he ain’t supposed to be in, I know he’s gonna have a bad time.” The voice was the same overall, oozing with the same bass and power as before yet it was as if the stage like theatricality had been replaced with a more professional and tired tone.

Noah swiftly turned on his heels.  
”Luke! What happened to you, what-” Noah asked excitedly, thankful the man had not somehow been killed or worse. Noah squinted through the dusty lobby, his eyes widening in surprise at the man who was clearly the Luke Cage from before but… different. Gone were the ancient clothes and out of place hairdo. Luke appeared more muscular than before, even causing Noah to feel somewhat small in comparison. He was now completely bald yet sporting a thick black beard, cleanly trimmed and well kept. His shirt was a much more appropriate slim fit crew cut T-Shirt of a deeper orange-yellow rather than the tacky yellow from before. He no longer had the tiara or chain-link belt, instead wearing a thick black waistband with a solid gold ‘CAGE’ indented into it. His pants did not appear to be jeans but rather thick black textured combat leggings. The silver manacles from before were still on his wrists but significantly less shiny, more of a brushed nickel or steel. His massive black combat boots possibly gave him an additional inch or two to his height, not that he needed it at all.

“I don’t know you, and when I don’t know someone that looks like you but they pretend to be my friend; it usually means they’re trying to trick me. And I ain’t havin that” Luke brought his hands together, cracking his knuckles audibly.  
”We boutta do this the easy way, or the hard way?” Luke prodded, visibly itching for a fight.

“No wait, c’mon Luke don’t-” Noah immediately regretted speaking up as the man began to charge at him. The very same technique as before yet infinitely more threatening. Luke’s footfalls pounded against the tile, seemingly shaking the room with their strength. Noah flexed his chest in preparation for the hit, sensing Savage collect density over his sternum in an effort to tank the hit.

Luke’s fist connected in the very same place as before but with nearly triple the force. Even with the additional padding Noah could only assume his sternum had just been bruised. The sheer force of the attack lifted him off of his feet, into the air, and ragdolled him into the wall at the end of the lobby just next to the elevators. Noah inhaled deeply, legs splayed out on the floor as he sat with his back up against the wall. It hurt to breathe, one breath, two breaths, and by the third he felt normal again. He was unsure if Savage had healed whatever damage had been done or if he had simply restricted his nerves from sending pain signals. It didn’t matter, Noah knew that whatever had happened there was no way this was going to be talked through, especially after whatever terrifying manipulation that voice had caused. Noah planted a hand to the ground, pressing his weight on to it as he began to get up; before he could even shift his weight Luke had closed the distance and at a full spring brought his knee up into Noah’s face. His second skin protected him as much as it could but the rigid structure collapsed inwards from the force and completely crushed the cartilage in his nose. Noah felt nothing, thankful for his other’s nervous manipulation but knew he either had to think fast or sit there and get pummeled. He brought his hands up in an effort to defend his face as Luke towered over his collapsed body and kicked him once more.

“You ain’t so tough huh weakboy. You’re pathetic, I thought I’d get a real fight and not some kid playing Spider-Man dressup. You may look like a big man but you’re pathetic.” Luke taunted aggressively to Noah.

The words rang into his skull like a pinball machine reaching a new high score.  
”Weak. Pat **hetic.** ” Noah coughed out, his voice filling with anger and frustration. Noah could feel his mind being pushed aside by Savage, but instead of fight it, he smiled as his second skin began to ripple and expand.

Luke kicked again and again, pushing the intruder’s body further and further into the concrete. He stopped momentarily as he saw what was happening before his very eyes.  
”Bruce?” Luke sputtered with confusion with the only word that came to mind.

Noah ignored the pain in his face and chest that had returned in full force as his consciousness slipped into the passenger seat; he could see and feel everything going on, even control parts of his own body with enough effort… but he didn’t want to. He had his turn and now it was time to let his other out to play. Luke stepped back as the already above average sized man clambered to his feet. The red rings across the man’s arm shifted and thickened and maneuvered around until the entirety of his left arm and left pectoral was now uniformly covered with dozens of tally marks. The growing monster’s muscles rippled and expanded as his shadow passed over Luke and left him in the darkness. The once large and somewhat unthreatening eye lenses had narrowed and shifted into a more expressive and less static shape, as if every feature of what had appeared to be a costume was now alive. The almost entirely featureless face split open just above the chin as a hauntingly numerous number of teeth teased their way into view. A crimson red tongue oozing a partially translucent blackened saliva slithered out with a satisfied growl. The hulking beast stood at just under seven and a half feet tall, with probably close to four hundred pounds of muscle. The very floor he stood on cracked from the pressure.

“ **This one is for you.** ” Savage’s animalistic voice shook the air before him as he brought a talon tipped finger to the only incomplete set of four tally marks on his left pectoral.

Luke shook his head in surprise at what he had just witnessed, throwing a disorganized fist forward at the target he had been defeating easily just seconds earlier. His haphazard punch slapped against the tarry abdomen of the creature, sinking a half inch or so in but clearly not actually causing any injury.

Savage brought their massive hand down onto Luke’s head, engulfing nearly the whole thing in his palm and wrapping his fingers across his scalp while his thumb slipped into his mouth.  
” **My Turn.** ” Savage rumbled out, grasping Luke’s head and swinging his arm around at a disgusting speed. Luke soared through the lobby and directly into the already cracked concrete they had been pinned to earlier. Luke broke through the wall and flew into the next building.  
Savage cackled in excitement and cracked his own knuckles, almost mocking what Luke had done earlier. Luke stepped through the dust cloud that had formed from the destruction and brushed the powdered concrete from his shoulders.

“So it’s gonna be one of those ain’t it.” Luke brought his hands to his belt buckle and pulled it outward. The gold plate separated revealing a second plate beneath with the word ‘LUKE’ indented into it, which he also pulled from its resting place. He slid his fingers into the rings behind each letter, clashing them together with a _Ping_.  
”I’m boutta write my name all over your ugly ass” Luke said as he brought both fists up.

Savage dropped to their hands and pushed forwards with his legs, launching forward on all fours like some sort of demonic animal. He closed the distance within only a second and tackled Luke at the waist, both flying forward with the momentum. Savage brought their fist down to his face, punching so hard at the concrete floor of the building split downward. Luke’s face betrayed that he had been momentarily stunned and Savage bent their face into Luke’s neck, bringing their jaw closed with as much strength as they could muster. Savage felt their teeth connect to the skin at what should have been an easy kill, but the seemingly unbreakably dense skin refused to split open. Luke tucked his legs in and kicked Savage off with enough force to arc them into the air and back onto the floor, just in the threshold of the hole between the two intersecting buildings. Savage scrambled to their feet and spit out three or so of their massive shark like teeth to the floor, which were instantly replaced by newly formed fangs. Luke smiled and stomped forward and threw a fist forward, this time more organized and purposeful than before. The word ‘CAGE’ imprinted itself just below Savage’s right pectoral before returning to its original smoothness. Savage returned fire with their own fist, the gargantuan feat of strength connecting directly into Luke’s nose and returning the favor he had bestowed to Savage’s host. Luke’s nose collapsed inwards, not nearly as much as Noah’s has but the cartilage had been obviously damaged. Luke spat to the floor, the slightest hint of red in his saliva as he wiped his arm against his nose briefly.

Savage knew the two could continue to exchange blows until one conceded due to exhaustion… or worse, interference from the voice. Savage flexed their fingers open and closed, preparing their next move. Luke stepped forward and threw another punch to the same affect as before. Savage took advantage of the opening and threw his hands around Luke’s neck. Their toothy grin turned into one of determination as he drove himself to squeeze with all of the strength they could muster in a last ditch attempt to collapse his airway.  
” **Unbreakable skin you say. Bet you still need to breathe… weakling** ” Savage grunted out their weak insult as Luke finally realized what was happening. He brought his hands to Savage’s in an attempt to pull them off. His knuckle dusters causing minor restriction in the dexterity of his fingers but not enough to have really affected the inevitable outcome.

Luke saw the spots in his vision grow as his body gasped for air. He dangled wildly for another half minute as his incredible strength weakened into nothingness just as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Savage held on for an addition few seconds, ignoring Noah’s cries of mercy. Savage rolled their eyes and dropped the man to the floor, he would likely be out for a few minutes at least but there was no way he’d be a threat any time soon. Savage kicked the man’s body once more out of sheer pettiness. The massive symbiote stepped back into the partially destroyed lobby of the other building and back towards the elevator doors they had pried open. They stuck their head inside and looked upwards, not seeing any moving elevators. They crawled into the elevator shaft and dug a massive claw into the concrete structure. First one, then the other; clawing their way up the building with significantly less grace than Noah preferred. They had no way of knowing how many floors it would be to reach the floor with the blown out glass they had seen before but after a few dozen floors and lots of damaged concrete thrown to the bottom of the shaft below they saw the sign they didn’t know they had been looking for. A rather large light blue ‘4’ of the exact same design from the outside of the building had been painted inside the elevator shaft just in front of a pair of partially open elevator doors. It seemed to be a marking of some sort to allow maintenance staff a heads up of what floor they had reached.

Savage hopped out of the elevator shaft and into what appeared to be a lab of some sort. They inhaled deeply, intrigued by the mysterious scent of what could only be described as burnt air. They cautiously stepped forward, unsure of what they were looking for but knowing that each and every piece of scientific equipment before them seemed lightyears ahead of anything they had seen before; not every machine or beaker or test tube, but a solid majority of them had seemingly been branded in the same manner as the building itself and the elevator shaft just moments ago. Savage couldn’t help but feel that whoever had done so might have had a fear of being forgotten.  
”Somebody seems to have a favorite number.” Noah mentally projected into Savage’s somewhat distracted mind.  
” **I do not have a favorite number** ” Savage quickly returned out loud, brushing a finger over each of the slightly raised red tally marks on their body.  
” **The number four is stupid.** ” Savage mumbled while casually kicking a small desktop computer aside.  
”Not you big guy-” Noah attempted to roll his eyes below the body that controlled his own.

A loud humming seemed to be emanating from the center of the room, a bizarre machine of some sort they couldn’t even begin to comprehend. Savage stepped through shards of broken glass that cracked loudly under their weight and turned their head in intrigue at the sight before them. Two bodies laying right next to eachother, one incredibly massive humanoid probably about six feet tall but apparently made of stone. Its orange rocky body still human on a visually anatomic level, as if a rather muscular bald man had simply been turned to stone and splayed out prone on the floor. Something had knocked both out, or even killed them. Savage turned their head and examined the more obviously human person beside the rock man. Savage couldn’t tell if they were a man or woman at first glance, their grasp on human anatomy and self identification elementary at best; but the person did not appear especially remarkable. Savage sniffed the air once more, the unconscious smaller human seemed to be the source, perhaps having burned something or been burned prior to their arrival. Savage looked around the room, not seeing any further indications of other living creatures within. Savage nudged the two with their feet to no response, completely unsure of how to proceed as the massive machine hummed loudly in the center of the room.

A strong gust of winded brushed by their body, reminding them that the glass walls of the floor they stood on had been completely blown out somehow. Savage briskly approached where a massive glass window pane had once been and attempted to survey just quite how bad the city had been affected. A few pillars of smoke and dusty debris floated through the air down below, emergency sirens screaming chaotically as the balls of red and blue light drove up and down the streets. Savage stared towards the not so distant skyscrapers. Part of the Empire State building had been seemingly shaved off, as someone had effectively cleave off a portion of the upper third of the building. Just beside it was another incredibly tall building with the strangest thing Savage had ever seen. What appeared to be an entirely new building they had never seen before, similar to the one they stood in now, appeared to have partially collapsed onto that of another. The neo architecture of visually clashing against the blocky modernism of the majority of the other structures. It appeared as if just like so many others, portions of the building had been removed or intersected into others; incredibly large LED letters dangled and shot sparks from their positions. Savage couldn’t be sure but it appeared to spell out ‘ARK’, but they knew that wasn’t the full name. Something tugged at Noah’s mind below, the beginnings of a headache teasing him and his other with the sensation that all of what they saw should have been familiar. As if all of the information surrounding them and the peculiar circumstances they had encountered should have been somewhat obvious; they sensed they understood the concepts they looked at but the very information felt just out of grasp. Savage’s mind drifted back to the voice they had heard just after meeting Luke. They wanted to know what that was, _who_ it was, and why their minds felt as if entire portions of their memory had not quite been removed but scrubbed into a bizarre haze.


End file.
